Just another example of modern slavery… I stood there for a whole minute not believing what i had just seen! The woman left the car forgetting about the maid. When I saw the man who was driving making signs to her that she forgot something, I directly thought it was a suitcase, until I saw the maid hop out the trunk, and the woman laughing that she forgot her. Click here for an interesting article about the topic by Maysam Ali.
nightS
OH my god!!! in the trunk!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Shame on her!!
Rami
it’s the trend I think! on my way from Aley to Beirut last weekend I saw a Lebanese couple in a 4×4 car also placing their maid in the trunk! SHAME!
Thierry B.
Such a shame !!!!!!!
Tony
Agreed…
What would be expected though is that she’s takin the maid to clean some1 else’s house and that has become a habit, one maid of some1 cleaning many other houses, exploited to the max as if it was a cleaning tool or something… The mentality of the people is sad… pretty egocentric they no longer see the human side of other people… thats a shame… then people ask why we have problems in Lebanon.. well it’s just perspective and respect
Perhaps this will interest you:
Lebanon on US watch list for failing to combat human trafficking
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=103179
Rabih
Yeah.. this is just the tip of the iceberg. What people do to maids in the Arab world is atrocious.
This is due to the chauvinistic personality Arabs have (and unrightfully so). Even among Arabs themselves (especially in the gulf) you can see that “El mouwatnin” consider the rest of the world as their servants or as 2nd-degree human beings..
Wissam
From the car plate, I think I know where they from…
Maysan
OMG…. i’m speechless
nahil
ummmm r u fkn serious… batal fi respect la humanity even in 09
Y.I
O..M..G
youhoo
I am and advocate of making this s**t illegal. Not necessarily the job of ‘house made’ but the one Maya refers to as ‘house slave’. And there’s a slight but important difference. Regardless, when my brother was born my parents had to get someone to take care of him and i, and at 3 years old i didn’t know any better. But very soon i became uncomfortable with the whole thing and begged my parents for years and years to not have a house made. And finally they agreed.
The one major effect I’ve seen this whole thing have on the Lebanese people is discrimination. I can not say if Lebanese people are ‘racist’ by nature, but i can definitely say that they have become so because of this phenomenon. The biggest examples of this show up when a Lebanese person grew up and raised in Lebanon in the midst of all of this, but then moves to a western country where the general population is a mix of ethnicity. And that person’s interaction with people of Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, or any African dissent makes it very apparent the attitude the Lebanese person has towards the other people, even if they were his superiors (at work or in social class).
This has done more damage to the Lebanese people than imagined. What happened to the time where children were sent to daycare? or when the grandmother was helping the working parents? or when we were afraid to ask our neighbor to look after our kids while we’re gone? Bring back those days!
Anas
Goddamn it! maids are employees, not slaves. The law should protect them and their abusers should be fined and even sent to jail!
or just commuted around in the trunk of a 4X4 for a week or so, douche bags!
Rawad
Urge to smack…rising
Hanzala
i am not surprised…
by the way they are not called “maid”, the appropriate term is domestic worker..
cheers
gr8 blog!gd luck with the boook
Omar
Disturbing.
On a similar note, if kids helped out more in the house, people wouldnt need maid.
D.R.Bouloot
if she is going to shop for thousands of dollars why the hell she has to take her “maid” with her anyway and put her thru everything..the car (trunk experience…) her Mrs. high spending vs her low miserable salary…etc
maybe if she had opened her eyes (see illustartion) she might had remembered the trunk…hihihihihihiiiiiiiiii
mika
..no comment:((
Pazuzu
basita, if everyone of us says/does something about whenever they see things like this taking place, then opinions will shift. If you dont want to actively do anything about it, you can just argue with every visitor comes to your place dragging a maid behind, especially if it’s a family reunion. And every time an incident about an “evil maid” betraying her employer is mentioned, correct the speaker’s information, by talking about migrant rights and labor rights and human rights.
you can also go to events regarding migrant workers rights in your country… shame all shameful acts
Simba Russeau
Hi Maya. Thank you for this illustration. I liked it because it talks about an important issue that continues to go unreported in the media.
For all the people who have left comments of outrage, I appreciate your sympathy it’s very important for all of us to condemn these practices, and by the way it is not only Gulf people who do that, in Lebanon this happens on a daily basis, after all every week at least one migrant worker dies (http://tastekulcha.blogspot.com/2010/01/lebanon-filipina-maid-becomes-first.html) this is because most women i’ve interviewed are subjected to rape, abuse and slave like confinement. Racism is apart of the culture it seems as some University students tell me that they aren’t used to seeing dark skinned people who are not in a position of submission. Even tourists from the Gulf, Europe, Asia and Africa as well as students and professionals are looked upon as the lowest of class (http://simbarusseau.wordpress.com/2009/08/18/as-tourists-flock-to-lebanon-from-far-and-wide-will-racism-desist/)